Addicted to a meanie
by RikkuXGippal
Summary: When the fourteen year old Rikku gets a request from her dad to fix the machina in Mushroom Rockroad together with a certain young man, her whole life changes... (RikkuxGippal)
1. Request from Cid

**-Addicted to a meanie-  
**(Ugh…What kinda of a title is that?)

**Authors note:** Hello!  
This is yet another of those GippalxRikku fanfics. I know that my fic isn't better than any other of the fics around here, fact is that I think it's WORSE! But it's just so fun to write 'em:)  
Anyway…  
The beginning will be boring and _very_ predictable, but I couldn't think of anything better than this. But it WILL be better, around chapter 4 or 5! Well, that's about all I have to say, except: Sorry for my bad grammar and spelling, but English isn't' my…What do you call it? Home language? XD Anyways, try to enjoy:) The first five chaps will be boring, but then STUFF will happen! ;)

And oh, have to explain this to you!  
When a character talks, it looks like this: "Hello!"  
…but when a character thinks, it looks like this_: "Hello!"  
_Alrighty?_ :p_

_And I wanna thank Cissi (weird-foreigner) for helping me with this fic. Thank you!_

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-Chapter One-

**Request from Cid**

"Pop? You there?" the fourteen year old Rikku asked as she opened the door to her fathers little shed where he used to be, tinkering with some sort of machina.

And there he was, sitting on his old chair with a weird machina thing in front of him. He looked up at her and smiled at his daughter.

"Good thing you came so quickly" he said as he looked down at the machina thing again "I don't have much time, y'know"

"So what was it that was so important?" Rikku asked and sat down on another dirty, old chair and looked at her father, Cid and the machina he was tinkering with. What the heck was that?

"Gotta ask you to do me a favour" Cid said and looked up at her again "'Cause my hands are full for the rest of the week and I got this request…"

Rikku frowned at her father. This didn't look good.  
"So, uh…What kind of request is it?" she asked and sighed, absolutely sure that she would have to run some sort of errand for her father.

"You know Mushroom Rockroad?" Cid said as he frowned too "Well, 'course you do...Anyways, they're having big trouble there… with all the fiends... Summoners disappear there all the time. Kinda scary…And that's because the machina I sent 'em aren't working properly…"

Rikku looked at her father. Yeah, of course it was scary, but what could _she _possibly to do stop _that_? Her father seemed to understand what she was thinking because he scratched his head a while before he continued.

"And almost all the crusaders are out somewhere else to protect people from Sin…" Cid looked really troubled and took a short break before he finally said "So they, the crusaders I mean, really need that machina to stop those fiends…"  
"Okay…?" said Rikku "But what can _I _do about that?" Just as she said it she realised _exactly _what she could do about it. And she didn't like it.

"Hey, hey, hey!" she screamed as she stood up and began to wave with her hands "You're gonna ask me to go to mushroom rockroad and repair that broken machina for you!"

"Uh…Yeah…" Cid said with a troubled look on his face.

"Just great…" Rikku said with another sight and sat down again "How will I be able to do something like _that _all by myself, Pop?""

Cid looked down on the machina again "You won't be going alone, of course!"

"Hm?" Rikku gave her father a surprised look "Then who'll I go with?"

"Someone called…I think he was called…" Cid started and scratched his head again, trying to remember the name. But Rikku had already heard enough.

"_He!_" she said as her head turned slightly pink "Y-you mean I gotta do this with…"

Cid didn't seem to notice that Rikku was talking to him, or maybe he just didn't care about it. He just continued to scratch his head. Then his face lightened up.

"Now I remember! His name was Gippal!" Cid said and started to tinker with the machina again.

Rikku sighed and understood that this wasn't a request from her father – it was an order, so she admit herself defeated and sighed again.

"Ooh, poopie…" Rikku said as she closed her eyes. But maybe…Just maybe, this wasn't going to be as boring as she thought? It wouldn't take more than a few days and it was quite boring just relaxing at home, always afraid of the fact that Sin could come anytime and kill them all.

And maybe this guy was nice…Rikku hid a little smile and opened her eyes again.

"So…When will I be going then?" she said, trying to sound a little bit of more bothered than she actually was by the thought.

Cid looked up from the machina again with a slightly surprised look on his face.

"You're gonna do it?" he said.

"Yeah, guess I have no choice" Rikku grinned "But when will I go?"

"Tomorrow…" he said, still with the surprised look on his face.

"Alrighty!" Rikku said with a little smile on her face before she stood up, and began to walk out of the door.

"And, Rikku…" her father suddenly said, and Rikku turned around and looked at him.

"Thank you" Cid smiled, and then got back to his machina.

Rikku smiled and continued to walk out of the little shedand into her and her small families little house, and began to pack necessary things in one of her bags.

She gave the clock on her wall a quick look, and realised that it was quite late. _"Might as well take a little nap before dinner..."_ she thought and smiled to herself, and the last she could remember thinking of before she fell asleep was _'I wonder who this Gippal is…' _

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**The annoying authors note, again: **So…I'm completely sure that you guys couldn't guess this Gippal thing at all! ;) Anyhow…This fanfic has just started, so maybe it'll be better when it has…started up a bit :p Know what I mean? XD No? XD  
And then finally, as usual: Thanx for reading, folks :) 


	2. Meeting Gippal

**-Addicted to a meanie-  
**(Still hate the title :p)

**Authors note:** Yees! I've mad a little plan for this fanfic ;D Now I can update oooften! And the best stuff is - there'll be a little more action ;D Yaay:p And remember – this is my first fic ever..:p

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**-Chapter Two-  
****Meeting Gippal**

When Rikku woke up the following morning, she was extremely hungry. Didn't anyone wake her up for dinner yesterday?  
_"Meanies…"_ she thought as she tiredly got out of her bed and started to dress. What a great start at this day…

She picked up her packed bag and then she slowly walked down the stairs, down to the kitchen and took a cup of tea before she went outside to look for her father.

She found him a short while later, talking to her annoying big brother; Brother. Even his name was annoying…

"Pop…I'm ready to leave…" she yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Oh, Rikku…" Cid said and turned around to look at her "Took ya long enough" he grinned and gave his daughter a little hug.

"You should be grateful, pops!" Rikku grinned back and yawned again "But…How will I get there?" she said when she stopped yawning "Ya don't expect me to_ walk_ there, are ya?"

"'Course not!" Cid chuckled and pointed at Brother "Brothers gonna pick some stuff up at Luca and then he'll just drop you off by Mushroom Rockroad. He can fly my airship, y'know"

Rikku looked at Brother. _"Hope this'll be a short flight…"_

"So. Before ya go, listen to me very carefully now, Rikku" Cid began and looked with Rikku with a very strict face "When you get there, just look around for this guy named Gippal. He'll already be there. And when you find him, you're just gonna go to the Crusaders headquarter and they'll tell you what to do, 'kay?"

Rikku nodded.

"Understood!" she smiled.

"And you'd better take these with you" Cid said as he gave her a little bag.

"What's this?" Rikku asked and took the bag in her free hand.

"A tent and some other camping things that might come in handy…" Cid explained.

"Okay…" Rikku frowned. _"I'd forgotten about that…"_  
Cid seemed to understand what she was thinking, because he hurried to tell her that she would have a tent of her own which caused Rikku to sigh of delight.  
"Well then, we'll better get going" Rikku sighed and gave her father a little kiss on his cheek and then got on board the airship with her brother, waving to her father as long as she could see him.

Rikkus wish that it would be a short flight didn't exactly get fulfilled. Three hours later a hungry and sleepy Rikku got out of her fathers airplane, waved goodbye to Brother and sat down on one of her bags with a little sigh.

"_Now what..?" _she looked around to see if she could find this Gippal, but he was nowhere in sight, so she stood up, lifted up her bags and began to walk around. But that didn't exactly help.

"Ohh!" she angrily said as she sat down on her bag again. _"Pop said that he would be here! Maybe I should try to find the crusaders headquarter by myself? Yeah. That's it!" _

So she stood up again, lifted up her bags and smiled to herself. But the smile disappeared just a second later, when she realised that she didn't know the way to the crusaders headquarter.  
"Aww, man!" she said and sat down for the third time on her bag.

"I am so going to kill you, pops…" she said as she closed her eyes, but then she heard something. _"A…chuckle!" _she quickly opened her eyes and looked around to see who the chuckle belonged to.

Then she saw him – sitting in the only tree, smiling a cocky smile as he continued his chuckle.

"_Aw, how could I miss that tree!"_ Rikku thought and hit her head. That sure was stupid of her.

"Uh, are you Gippal?" she asked the boy in the tree as she frowned. He had blonde hair that stood straight up from his head, and two green eyes, just as her own.

"Yep…" he grinned and looked at her and began to smile his cocky smile again "So then I guess you're Cid's girl…"

"Eh? Cid's girl!" Rikku yelled at the boy "What do you mean with that!"  
The boy didn't change the expression on his ckocky face, even though Rikku yelled at him. Still smiling he continued; "Cid asked me to help you - his daughter. And if you're Cids daughter, then that's the same thing as Cid's girl, isn't it?"

"W-well yeah…" Rikku replied, surprised that he still was smiling. All the guys back home used to get really nervous when she yelled.

"But that doesn't mean I don't have a name!" she added and put her hand on her hips.

The boy, or Gippal as his name now was, looked at her and then he jumped down from the tree.

"So….shall we get going, Princess?" he grinned and bowed.

Rikku blushed and felt how she hated this boy, everything from his upstanding hair to his annoying smile. And what's that crap with princess all of sudden!

Gippal smiled again, turned around and started to walk away.

"H-hey!" Rikku ran up to him "Don't you wanna know my name?"

"Nope" he chuckled and looked at her with a teasing look.

"Fine then" Rikku snorted and looked away.

"But if you wanna tell me your name _that _badly…" he said with another chuckle.

"Oooh, will you shut up! I'll never tell you my name!" Rikku said. Not very polite to tell someone you just met 'shut up'…_"But this is different! He's a total…meanie!" _

But he just continued his chuckle and then he said that they should hurry up to the crusaders headquarter.

Rikku just snorted as answer.

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**The annoying authors note, again**: Well…What should I say? Other than that I really, really hope that you guys stick around until chapter 5, because then the action will start! Promise:D 


	3. Mission Starts!

**-Chapter Three-  
****Mission Starts!**

**A/N: Gosh, thanks for all your reviews! Made me so happy! XD Anyways, here's chapter 3! **

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Rikku and Gippal continued their walk in silence, without even looking at each other. Rikku mumbled something sometimes, and Gippal opened his mouth once, but other than that: nothing.

Rikku felt really stupid as she looked down at her feet and mumbled for the third time. There really was no reason for her to be angry, but for_ some_ reason she had a problem with this guy.

A couple of minutes of awkward silence later they finally reached a big, blue tent which was the crusaders headquarter in Mushroom Rockroad.  
"Finally…" Rikku said with a sigh as she put down her heavy bags on the ground and looked at Gippal. She was just about to say something about how slow he was, when she saw that a little man was looking at them and now hurried up to run inside the tent.

"One of the crusaders…" she heard Gippal say to himself in a low, bitter voice.

Then he started to walk closer to the tent and stopped just outside. Rikku followed him with a troubled look on her face. She wanted to go home and continue doing nothing for the rest of the summer.

"Gipp-" she started, but Gippal waved with his hands.

"No! Let's hear what they're saying, 'kay?" he whispered as he pointed towards the tent. Rikku snorted, but she kept her mouth shut and moved closer to the tent to hear what was being said inside it.

"Sir! They're here!" Rikku guessed it was the little guy who spoke. His voice sounded almost as tiny squeaks.

"Man…What a bother. I can't stand those bloody al bheds…" another voice said, probably the 'sir'.

"Fryd!" (What!) Rikku whispered to Gippal with an angry look on her face "What kind of a welcome is _that_!"

Gippal gave her a surprised look.

"You didn't except a nice welcome from the crusaders, did you?" he whispered back and shook his head "Man, in that case you're really naive…Or stupid…" he grinned which caused Rikku to punch him on his shoulder. He sighed with a smirk on his face and then he continued: "They won't even let me join them...just because I'm al bhed. They don't trust _us_ for a second. No one in Spira does." Then he grinned a sarcastic grin at Rikku and walked away a bit from the tent.

"Don't call me naive, meanie! And don't grin like that!" Rikku said as she followed him, wondering why this Gippal wanted to join the crusader. The only things the crusaders did were dying, right? Wasn't he to young for that? And why wouldn't they let him just because he's al bhed! And if they hated al bheds so much, why did they come running to Cid, begging for machina! That was really low…

"I really thought that you'd know about this whole 'Spira-hates-all-al bheds-thing,'" Gippal said "After all I guess you're Cid's little princess."

But Gippal was wrong. Cid never told Rikku anything about what happened in the world, because he thought that could…hurt her. As a result, everything Rikku ever did was tinkering with machina and that was what her childhood had been all about. Then of course, she was blissfully ignorant of everything that happened in Spira.

Rikkus faced turned red and she started to make weird sounds, which was supposed to be words. Five seconds later she managed to say "Meanie!", but that was all. She didn't like the fact that this annoying Gippal knew more than she did, and she didn't like to be called 'princess'.

Just as Gippal opened his mouth, the little man with the squeaky voice came out from the tent, followed by another man who Rikku guessed was the 'sir'. He even_ looked_ like a meanie.

"Oh, nice to see you. We've been expecting you." The 'sir' said as he looked at the young al bheds with a look on his face that clearly showed that he wasn't pleased at all at the sight of them. Rikku recognized the voice; it _was_ the 'al bhed hater sir'. Why did he pretend to be so nice? What an….

"My name is Beren.." he continued and cleared his throat.

"Why, you are--!" Rikku started to yell at the man, but Gippal gave her a meaning look and then he looked back at the man.

"You know why you're here, right?"

"Yes, sir. Where should we start, sir?" Gippal said with a polite voice.

"_Why are you so nice to this idiot and so mean to me! Man…he really hates me…" _Rikku thought as she put her arms in a cross over her chest and turned around. But then she tried to figure out _why_ Gippal was such a jerk, and realised that she didn't even know. That made her "mood-meter" sink down even lower, staying at minus 11.

"As you know the machina we got from you aren't working the way it should. Your mission is to fix them." Beren continued "The most of the machina is located just around Djose highroad, so you should go look there first. Understood?"

"Understood, sir" Gippal said and looked at Rikku "We'll get going then."

"Yes…" the man said as he turned around and started to walk towards the tent again. But then he suddenly turned around, just as Rikku turned around and started to stick out her tongue at him. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow and then said; "Report to me when you're done."

"Yes, sir" Gippal said and gave Rikku a little smile. Rikku blushed and turned around again.

Then the man got into his tent and Gippal started to chuckle. "Well done, Cids girl…I guess he likes al bheds even more than before now, thanks to you."  
"Oooh, stop calling me that! My name is Rikku and—"

"So _that's_ your name…" Gippal grinned "I knew you would tell me it sooner or later"

Rikku blushed of anger when she realised that he'd got her – again!

"Hey! That counts as cheating!" Rikku said as she pushed Gippal away from her and lifted up her bags again.

"Want some help?" Gippal grinned as he looked at Rikku.

"Not from you, meanie!" she grumped back "Which way is it to Djose highway, anyway?"

"This way…" Gippal smirked and began to walk.

Rikku sighed when she lifted up her bags. Why didn't she let Gippal carry her bags?

A short while later they reached the Djose Highroad. And now Rikku understood what the problem with the machina was. They ran around, totally out of control. As it looked now Rikku doubted that they could even see the difference between a fiend and another machina.

"What should we do?" Rikku said, with a dejected sigh.

"…" Gippal looked as if he thought exactly the same thing. Then he frowned and looked at Rikku.

"The best thing to do would be to take 'em apart and then put 'em together again…Then we'll find the problems and fix them…That'll take some time though…"

Rikku sighed. "Guess we have no choice…"

"Let's start then…" Gippal grinned and took up some tools from his own bag and gave some of them to Rikku.

"Here, take these…" he mumbled with his own tools in his other hand. Then he gave her a very strict look, similar to Cids.

"Don't get yourself hurt or anything…" he said as he scratched his head. Rikku felt how she blushed.

"_Now h-he cares about me!"_

"…'cause Cids gonna kill me if you do…" he continued with a little grin.

"_Damn…That's so obvious…Why didn't I understand it right away…" _she let out an sigh.

"Don't you get yourself killed either, 'cause then I won't find my way back to the headquarters!" Rikku grinned back before she looked out over the machina.

"Let's take that one first…" Gippal said and pointed at small machina with weird arms sticking out from it.

"Why should I do what you tell me to do, meanie?" Rikku heard how childish it sounded one second to late.

"Because…" Gippal smiled his cocky smile again and took up a large rope from the ground and waved with it.

"Alright! Alright!" Rikku said as she nodded and then they started to move closer to the machina. She didn't want him to tie her up on a tree or something like that. It was bad enough as it already was. So she did what he told her to do. His plan was that Rikku would catch the machina with the rope and he would…watch?

"I'm not doing that!" she said "Lets do like this; I'll watch and then YOU tie it up!"

"You sure?" Gippal teased and waved with the rope again.

"A-alright! I'll do it!" Rikku said, taking four step backwards, away from Gippal and the rope.

"Alright…" Gippal said with another grin "Let's start then, before you'll start whining again…"

And so they started.

A short while later they were finished with taking the first one apart and the young al bheds proudly smiled for themselves.

"Let's start rebuilding it, shall we?" Gippal asked and pointed at the pile of machina parts on the ground.

Rikku told Gippal that she didn't want to, giving him a look that clearly showed him that they weren't friends or anything.

Gippal just nodded with a smile on his face and leaned closer to the machina which made Rikku a little bit of angry. She wanted him to say "Please don't go" or something like that. But no. Just a stupid smile…

"Then I'll go fix the tents while you fix that…." She said before she walked away, as a final try to make him ask her to stay, just so she could say no. But he didn't even answer.

So she just sighed again and started to look for a good place for the tents. She found one after a couple of minutes, which lay a good bit away from the crazy machinas – just in case.

"Let's start with the tents, Rikku!" she said to herself as a try to cheer herself up.

And so she started. There was only one problem – Cid had just packed _one _tent in her bag. One tent for her, alright. But she couldn't remember that Gippal had had any bag…Which meant… _One _tent – two persons.

"_Ohhh! Poopie! Prepare to sleep outside, Gippal!"_

She put up the tent a good bit away from the crazy machina, with just some smaller problems.

Then, when she was done, she heard something that sounded like a scream, coming from the Djose Highroad.

"G-Gippal!" she screamed in panic. What had happened!  
She ran as fast as she could to the place where Gippal had been sitting, and found him lying on the ground, now panting and shaking, with his hand pressed over his right eye.

"Gippal!" she said with a shaking voice as she sat down next to him "What happened!"

No answer. Rikku looked at him and saw that blood was running out from under his hand.

"Has s-something….happened to your eye, Gippal?" she said with a very scared voice. Still no answer. She decided to take him to the tent so that the machina wouldn't hurt him even more; it looked bad as it already was. But he was too heavy to carry there…

"W-wait here!" Rikku said as she stood up and on shaking legs started to run towards the tents again. There she took a blanket with her and hurried to run back to Gippal. Then she helped him to lay down on that, and started to pull him to the tent.

"How…pathetic!" Was the only words that flew through Rikkus head as she slowly came closer and closer to the tent.

When they finally reached it, she helped him go inside the tent and lay him down on the little mattress.

"Ough…ow…." He said with a pitiable voice, still holding his hand over his eye.

"L-let me see it…"

"N-no…You don't wanna…" Gippal coughed, still with his eyes closed.

"Uh…You're right…I don't _want to_ but I _have to_…" she looked at Gippal who opened his other eye.

"You really are strange…" he grinned back, but not as relaxed as usual. "Fist you seem to hate me….and then you seem to actually care about me…"

Rikku blushed and looked away "I-I care for myself by doing this! Otherwise...I…I'll get lost! Or get killed by that crazy machina!"

Gippal smiled and closed his eye again.

"Wi…W-will you be alright?" Rikku asked as she looked at him again, now that he couldn't see that she did,

"…Yeah. I'm fine." He did an attempt of smiling.

Rikku sighed as she looked at the boy in front of her. He seemed to be in such pain…well she didn't like him, but still… it's not funny to see someone be in such great pain as Gippal was now…knowing that you can do nothing about it. She sat there all day, looking at him, as he fell asleep and woke up again, just a few minutes later, panting, all wet of sweat. She took one of her clean socks from her bag and held some of the water from her bottle with water in on it and put it over his eye, without looking. Gippal really was right. She didn't want to see.

"I-it'…a…sock…." Gippal said with a pitiable voice "I don't…want your sock in my face…" he grinned and closed his eye again, couching in pain. Rikku rolled her eyes, but with a little smile on her face.

"Someday…I'll fix those damned machina things…all by myself…I gonna build the best machina ever…" he grinned "Better than Cids anyway…."

Rikku sighed, still with the little smile on her face. Yeah, he was a little bit of annoying sometimes…But maybe he was okay?

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**A/N:** Stupid, I know. Really stupid. Gippal isn't that clumsy! Argh:p But you have to admit that Gippal sure fixed those machinas by being the leader of the machina faction later ;p Hope it wasn't too bad ; And I wanna give credit to my friend, Cissi, who helped me with this story. Thanks a lot! And to Linn, who always let me borrow her computer ;D My own is broken…X'P I hope you'll continue reading, and MOST OF ALL that you actually find this fic…readable:) That's all from me! See you (hopefully!) in the next chap! (Sorry for my bad grammar and spelling X'I I suck! X'S) 


	4. Miss Clever

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**-Chapter Four-  
****Miss Clever**

**A/N: Yay! Reviews! Loads of thanx to you guys who reviewed! You're the reason I write this, if that now makes any sense to you..;D However… let's start!**

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The day past by very slow. Rikku just sat there and looked at her wounded guide slash take-apart-machina-and-rebuild-them-again-teammate the whole day.

When it was getting late she fixed a little bed with the mattress, a blanket and the only pillow to Gippal.

"Here…Sleep – but remember this: if it wasn't for that eye, I'd let you sleep outside…" she said tiredly "It's not that I pity you, just…"

"…" Gippal opened his eye and looked at her "You're being nice for a change…Why? You actually pity me?" he grinned and held his hand over his eye with the sock over and with Rikkus help him lay down on the mattress and put the blanket over him.

"You've lost your ear too? I said that I DON'T pity you.." Rikku yawned

He didn't answer, he just gave her a tired smile and fell asleep just a little while later.

Rikku sat down a little bit away from him and closed her eyes. If she fell asleep some stupid machina could come in and stick out Gippals other eye too. And do other meanie things too…But if stayed awake she would be really tired the next day and she would have to work all by herself…Darn…

She looked at the sock that lied over Gippals eye. It was soaked in blood now. _"Yeew…"_

Then she closed her eyes and tried to get some rest.

"Rest, not sleep!" she said to herself. But of course she fell asleep. Right away.

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When she woke up the next morning she looked around in surprise, trying to remember where she was. Then she saw the sleeping Gippal and remembered.

He snored a little and said something in his sleep, but he lay with his back facing her so she couldn't hear what.

"You," Rikku yawned as she gave him a little push. But then she changed her mind. "I'll just let you sleep…you should be grateful…"

She crept out of the tent to find out that it was a dull and boring day. And she had work to do.

"Oh poopie…" Rikku whined as she started to walk towards the Djose Highroad were all the machina was gathered, shivering because of the cold winds. When she came there she saw Gippals little toolbox, standing there on the ground, so she got started right away.

It was a tough job, but she had no other options than do it herself. The al bhed hater wouldn't feel any pity for her anyway so it was no meaning in telling him that she had to do it alone. Maybe he'd thought that was funny and she wasn't going to let him laugh at her. No way!

Four hours later she was so tired that she barely could stand up, so she decided to stop. She had done quite well, and she smiled proudly to herself.

She leaved the toolbox on a little rock and started to walk home again. Gippal had to be awake now!

.-.-.-.-.-

And he was. But he _looked_ as if he was sleeping, or it looked more as if he was…dead, because he lay down on the ground with an empty look in his eyes, uh…eye.

Rikku looked at him, trying to decide if she should continue to be nice, or be a real meanie again. She decided to be a little bit of both, just in case.

"Umm," she started, just to get his attention, and then she asked him how he felt. No answer. So she tried again. "How's your eye…?"

Now Gippal twitched and looked at her. His face was pale and the arrogant smile of his wasn't dancing on his lips, like it used to.

"Oh," he said, voice barely above a whisper "It's you…" After his cold words he turned around so that all Rikku saw of him was his back.

"Fine," she snorted, but deep inside she felt almost hurt by his cold attitude "But don't come running and crying to me later!"

Rikku snorted and went outside again, and sat down on the cold ground.

"_Here I am, trying to be nice, and he just ignores me…" _Rikku thought angrily as she regretted that she'd been so nice.

She sighed and looked up at the sky, trying to decide what time it was, but she had never been good at that sort of things and today you couldn't even see the sun. But it couldn't be _that _late, could it?

"_Might as well rest here before I get back to…work.." _Rikku decided. So she closed her eyes and sighed again.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Rikku rested for about half an hour, and then she tiredly walked back to Djose Highroad to take some machina apart.

It was quite many left, and she sighed just at the thought of continue doing this.

Just as she found Gippals toolbox and walked up to it, she heard footsteps behind her.

"_G..Gippal!"_ She turned around to see who the footsteps came from. And when she saw who it was, she wished that she'd never turned around. It was Beren, Beren the mean Al Bhed hater, Beren the total meanie, Beren the...She shook her head, trying to get rid of all the hate thoughts.

"Oh…You…" was all that she said before she turned around again. _"Ohhh! Poopie, poopie, poopie!"_

Beren didn't seem to care about Rikkus cold attitude because he just asked her where Gippal was, even though his voice sounded a bit of annoyed.

Rikku felt how a drop of cold sweat started to run down her forehead when he asked that.

"He's…um…You mean the Gippal that was with me?" she nervously said, still with her back towards Beren.

He didn't even answer.

"Uh…So…I suppose that he's the Gippal you mean, then…" she continued and took a deep breath. Might as well tell him. "He's...in the tent…resting. Something happened to…his eye."

"To his eye? What?" she could feel Berens eye boring into her back.

Rikku sighed and turned around, she told Beren what had happen and led him to the tent. She waited outside when he got in it.

A couple of minutes later, he came out again.

"I'll take him with me. That eye doesn't look good." he said to Rikku without looking at her. Rikku frowned. Did he care about Gippals eye? The mean al bhed hater?

"Because…" Beren continued. _"So there is a because…Then I see…"_ Rikku thought and nodded at Beren to continue. "Well, if we don't fix that eye he won't be able to work at all, will he? So then I guess it leaves us no choice but to help him."

Rikku nodded again, trying to hide a smile. Then she helped Beren to get Gippal out of the tent, and Beren took Gippal to the Crusaders headquarter to fix his eye.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Rikku decided to stay at the tent for the rest of the day. Gippal would come back soon and then he would be able to work again.

Rikku wondered what he was doing but shook her head and gave herself a little punch in her head.

"_I don't even know him…"_ she sighed _"..but still…It seems like I've known him for soo long..as if we were childhood friends or something…" _She closed her eyes and tried to remember, but all she came to think of was a mean kid who always had stolen her ice cream, and his name had been…uh…Not Gippal anyway…

"I wonder if he's OK…?" Rikku thought out loud and opened her eyes again. Then she rememeber that she had to fix the tent.

"Sure is a problem…" she said as she went inside and started to fix the 'bed'. Now when Gippals eye would be fine, he could as well sleep outside. _"He's the one who forgot his tent, not me," _she thought when the guilty feelings started to show their ugly faces _"and besides I took care of him the whole day and whole night…"_

She fixed the last things, and then she went outside again, just in time to see Gippal coming towards the tent.  
Rikku looked at his face. What was he wearing..? A…eye patch? Wasn't he too old to play pirate? She just continued staring at him, as he came closer and closer.

"_What should I say? Should I say anything at all…?"_ Rikku didn't even know if she should look worried, angry, happy or sad so she continued to look totally emotionless as she shook her head and opened her mouth to say something.

"Well…How…When…Yeah…Uh…" she started and tried not to stare at the eye patch. Gippal chuckled a tiny chuckle and looked back at her.

"This is the kind of eye patch the Crusaders use when they get their eyes ripped out or damaged…" he said with a ironic smile on his lips.

"_Ripped out or damaged…? It was THAT bad!" _Rikku stammered something and tried to figure out what she actually SHOULD say.

"I didn't think," she started, cautiously, not wanting to say anything stupid "That it was…It's that bad?.." Her voice trailed off and she got back to stammering again.

"Yeah…" Gippals chuckle stopped and his face became serious. "Might take a while getting used to be half blind…"

"Half blind!" Rikku choked out, completely forgetting about the whole 'being-careful-Not-to-hurt-gippals-big-ego' thing and her face changed from emotionless to worried.

"They said that they eye got…" he stopped, trailed off and took a pause trying to find the right words. "That they eye got…infected" he finally said and started to grin the ironic grin again.

"I-i-infected…? R-really…?" Rikku said, voice nervously trying to stay as normal as possible.

"Yeah, infected," Gippal sighed "Infected by your sock, miss clever"

.-.-.-.-.-

Flushing at her new nickname and the fact that her 'taking care of Gippal' had resulted in Gippal loosing half his sight, Rikku looked down on the ground in panic.

"_God! He's half blind because of me! What the heck should I do now?" _Thoughts rushed around in Rikkus head in ultra speed and some of them managed to stay in her mind long enough for Rikku to actually understand them. ´

'_Poor Gippal…Because of me…' _was one of them, and Rikku felt how her head turned even pinker.

"What's the matter, Cid's girl? Making me loose half my sight isn't _that _bad, is it?" he grinned playfully and walked up to her.

"Then I don't have to see you as much as before" he added and put his arm around her neck, chuckling.

Rikku though, was too busy to notice that, busy thinking about Gippals reaction of this whole mess.

"_He doesn't even tell me that he hate me? Doesn't yell? What's the matter with him? Did his BRAIN get infected, too?" _

But then his words finally made sense to Rikkus brain, and it didn't take long until Rikku jumped away from Gippals hold of her and stopped pity him.

"What did you say!" she said, upset, and put her hands on her hips. "You're going to regret that, trust me!"

Gippal just chuckled and shook his head. Against her own will, Rikku found herself admiring Gippal. His eye was totally ruined because of her, and he didn't even show a sign of being angry and sad, not even one of them. Should she keep acting normal too? Maybe it was better that way? He might…well, not forget but…think less of this mess if she did?

Rikku decide to do so, so she told Rikku that she was changing to her jammies and went inside the tent and started to change and fix the last things with the bed for the night. When she was ready Gippal came in, looking surprised at the sight of the only bed.

"You mean…that we're going to sleep in one bed?" he asked, slightly blushing.

Rikku blushed and threw a pillow at him. "What do you _think_ about me? I'm not crazy!" she said, and laughed for the first time since she'd came here. "You're sleeping outside!"

Gippal looked at her as if he was trying to understand if she was joking or not. When Rikku gave him the pillow and the extra blanket he understood that she wasn't joking at all.

"Sleep tight!" Rikku grinned as she shut the tents opening, before Gippal had the time to complain, and lay down on her bed with a big smile on her lips. But later that night she had some really bad dreams about a sock, an eye, a Gippal and a Rikku...

* * *

**A/N:** Yawn..This "fix-machina-thing" is _SO_ getting boring! But I promise you that it will end in the next chapter, and then the story will be a lot of more funny! ;) So look forward to it, k:p And UOGH! I made Rikku a total jerk without feelings! --'

However….I'll be back soon:p

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